In healthcare, the body mass index (BMI) is used to estimate the potential of individual developing obesity. Waist circumference is used as the most sensitive tool to measure abnormalities compared to standardized BMI (BMI-SDS). It is used to screen people with high-risk factors for developing metabolic disorders. Excessive adipose fats pose a severe risk to individuals because these conditions are related to such diseases as Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, and heart attacks. In this regard, the measurement of the waistline instructs the physicians about their patients’ risks of developing obesity-related diseases.
BMI through waist circumference helps in the identification of health, parental concerns, and pertinent patient facts to provide strategies that encourage the parents to be more preemptive about their child’s wellbeing.
To accurately measure the waist circumference, the following steps are involved. First, by ensuring that the tape is horizontal around the individual’s waistline, the patient stands upright and a tape measure is cycled around the middle of the waist, ascertaining that the tape does not compress the screen. Just after exhalation, the waist is measured, and the result is recorded in a BMI book (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020).
Abnormal blood values are prevalent in young offspring and youths with obesity. Conducting research in obese adolescent, Perona et al. (2015) established that metabolic syndrome (MetS) were highly predicted with the waist circumference, noting a MetS with area under the curve = 1.00. However, the application of BMI on children with normal weight has provided varied results because of its inability to differentiate adipose fatty acids from lean mass. Therefore, though waist circumference provides high predictive values, its inadequate sensitivity underscores its validity and reliability.
Health Issues and Risk Factors
Overweight in parents is associated with various health issues and risk factors in their children. In such case, the girl can develop obesity because of her parents being obese. According to Bahreynian et al. (2017), there is a link between parental overweight and the development of obesity in their young people. The developing of obesity, which is associated with other health issues, is high in below 5 years old population group. Narmcheshm (2017) posits that raised thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which results in hyperthyroidism as a health issue, is associated with obesity in children. Therefore, the girl has increased odds of acquiring health-related issues because of her parents being obese. In this regard, establishing the cause of overweight in her parents is an essential aspect of the health assessment.
Health-related problems underlying the prevailing disease conditions, such as thyroid disease and other genetic factors, should be evaluated. In cases where there are no detectable co-occurring disorders, strategies which ensure normal weight loss are applied. According to the National Health Services [NHS] (2020), young children below the age of 12 require an abundance of energy and nutrition to ensure quality growth. Therefore, a proper diet with enough physical activities would limit the development of health complications in the girl. Furthermore, it is important to implement family-centered preventive programs, such as gene therapy to ascertain no transmission of such hereditary factors to their daughter.
Pertinent Information
Once it is determined that the patient is severely overweight, proper evaluation and interviews are needed to establish an understanding of her health. To gather information in a sensitive fashion, the use of Stepped Approach Technique such as the application of empathic interruption is vital. In this case, the patient and their family would be made co-responsible for time and care management. According to Giroldi et al. (2016), doctor-patient relationship is built around empathy and patient involvements in care supervision. These ensure gathering certain information that would otherwise be difficult to reveal by the family or the child.
Homeschooling can be a result of the inability to afford the school fees or belonging to the illegal immigrants, basing on the fact that the girl is of Asian descent. This can be thought to be the inability to find employment, which in the long run, can be associated with the youngster’s deprived nutrition. According to Singh et al. (2017), poor nutrition is an essential health aspect in an individual’s health and development in poor families from underprivileged communities. Consequently, gathering data on the patients’ and families’ income status can help identify the girl’s problems with nutrition. Upon obtaining the families’ income status, the nutritionist can help provide resources from such programs as the Women Infant and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and child nutrition programs. Therefore, such programs provide the needed nutritional values that facilitate adequate overweight preventive measures.
Obtaining information about the parents’ level of study is as important. Proper nutrition training can only be expedited to individuals’ that have basic education. According to research conducted by Chatterjee et al. (2016), analysis of families with schooling and without proper learning showed a significant difference in a young people developing obesity. In the research, the risk of a child being obese was approximately 43% and 26% in offsprings born to parents with less than 10 years and more 10 years of training respectively (Chatterjee et al., 2016). Therefore, enabling proper education on foods and healthy choices need to be provided to the child’s family.
Direct Questions
Another aspect of gaining patient medical history and family-related risk factors of being obese is by asking specific interrogations. Besides, the concept of phrasing the questions is essential in avoiding offensive or seemingly unnecessary loss of important information. Hence, the below-stated queries can act as a guide in describing the child’s chances of being overweight.
- Would you mind discussing your daily food intakes, such as breakfast, lunch, or supper? If no, please describe it.
- Now that you are homeschooling, do you find time to participate in any physical activities?
- Were you born in the US? If not, what is your immigration status?
- Being of Asian descent, do you have any dietary restrictions because of cultural beliefs?
Critical information unlocks the hidden facts about the child and the parent’s health-related history that can function to address the shortcomings in management and control of obesity. For instance, obtaining the girl’s and the parents’ dietary intake is important in understanding their meal’s nutritional values. This enables easy allocation of such resources as WIC, SNAP, and food banks, in cases of malnutrition. Moreover, physical activities and behavior also play a key role in navigating the chances of developing obesity.
A child’s health condition requires the parents to be proactive in ascertaining proper medical and early disease management. In this case, giving the parents training and proper education on important dietary meals can help alleviate the chances of becoming obese. Moreover, the provision of resources and support programs, such as WIC, SNAP, food banks, and nutrition programs, which are not known to many parents, can make a difference in a child’s wellbeing.
In conclusion, measurement of BMI through waist circumference is an essential aspect in the determination of the young girl’s health, thus helping to provide strategies which motivate parents to be more proactive about both their health and that of their offspring. Understanding the health issues and the risk factors facilitate the creation of strategic plans to reduce the risks of developing obesity in children whose parents are overweight. Precisely, gathering patient information through asking critical health-related questions necessitate easy allocation of WIC, SNAP, and food banks.
References
Bahreynian, M., Qorbani, M., Khaniabadi, B. M., Motlagh, M. E., Safari, O., Asayesh, H., & Kelishadi, R. (2017). Association between obesity and parental weight status in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology, 9(2), 111-117. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Assessing your weight. Web.
Chatterjee, K., Sinha, R., Kundu, A., Shankar, D., Gope, R., Nair, N., & Tripathy, P. (2016). Social determinants of inequities in under nutrition (weight-for-age) among children: A cross sectional study in Gumla district of Jharkhand, India. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(104), 1-9. Web.
Narmcheshm, S., Omidvar, N., Kalantari, N., Amiri, P., Sobhani, R., Feizy, Z., & Salehi, F. (2017). Relationship between thyroid stimulating hormone and metabolic syndrome in overweight/obese children. Caspian Journal of Pediatrics, 3(2), 224-228. Web.
National Health Service. (2020). Underweight children aged 6 to 12. Web.
Perona, J. S., Schmidt-RioValle, J., Rueda-Medina, B., Correa-RodrĂguez, M., & González-JimĂ©nez, E. (2017). Waist circumference shows the highest predictive value for metabolic syndrome, and waist-to-hip ratio for its components, in Spanish adolescents. Nutrition Research, 45(1), 38-45. Web.
Singh, A., Arokiasamy, P., Pradhan, J., Jain, K. & Patel, S. (2017). Sibling and family level clustering of underweight children in northern India. Journal of Biosocial Science, 49(1), 348-363. Web.